Trump Blows Up Case Against Media by Violating Court Order & Blocking Press Again

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0:30Michael Popok:Got some breaking news. It's coming out of the China White House official dinner for President Xi Jinping. Donald Trump and his White House have just violated Judge Kelly's order all over again and have blocked again CNN, Politico and MSNOW from covering the state dinner. This is Donald Trump walked around with Xi Jinping, showing him the hall of shame that he built in which he has, instead of a picture of Joe Biden, a picture of an auto pen, and he used his state-run television, geez, China felt right at home, of Trump TV to do a single camera feed of it. But the breaking news here is, what is Judge Kelly going to do now that it's been reported to him that they have breached his order all over again?

1:22Michael Popok:I mean, we just reported at 12.30 yesterday afternoon Eastern time that based on an affidavit filed by the Trump administration and its White House press pool director, that CNN, MSNOW, and Politico were giving back their press credentials. And they were giving it back maybe an hour or two later than the judge would have liked, but they were giving them back and they reported to work. In fact, we showed all the feed of them reporting to work and happily reporting to work until the state dinner happened. And then they were blocked again. And now it's back in front of Judge Kelly. Now, Judge Kelly is a Trump appointee from the first term.

2:03Michael Popok:And he might have given him a pass after they were late a couple of hours, considering Judge Kelly dropped his eight-page temporary restraining order at one o 'clock in the morning Eastern time. He said, all right, well, you know, everybody had to get their coffee and kind of reprogram the badges and all of that. And so he didn't say anything. And I said, I kept checking the docket to see if the lawyers for the mainstream media said anything about it. But they didn't. They just waited, set the trap, showed up for work to cover the Chinese dinner, and they were blocked again. So now Judge Kelly is going to have to seriously consider contempt.

2:39Michael Popok:Later today, I'm sure he's going to be holding another hearing and requiring the government sometime by midday to answer the question, why has the order been violated once again? You're here on Legal AF YouTube channel. Take this minute, hit the free subscribe button, help us to continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. I had earlier reported that I didn't think they were going to fool with Judge Kelly because he's a Trump appointee, even though he's not siding with them on this particular issue. They didn't take an emergency appeal to the D.C. Federal Court of Appeals because I think they thought that would be a dead bang loser.

3:19Michael Popok:They didn't want to make bad law for themselves on Fifth Amendment due process grounds that they took away the press badges without any protocol, without any due process or notice. So they held back. And because Trump TV so utterly failed, abysmally failed, losing 90 percent of its viewership in one day, at one point, 400 people were watching whatever they were, whatever vomitous stream that they were sending out to people's eyeballs. only 400 people were watching. By comparison, if 400 people were the viewership for my videos here on Legal AF, I'd hang up my spurs. I'd quit. The last time Ben Micellis and me had 400 views was six years ago, when it was really just our family watching.

4:04Michael Popok:And so he had 3 million people subscribing to the White House YouTube channel and just 0.076 % watching. So I thought, well, well, hey, Judge Kelly did him a solid. Solve for the problem. Solve for the equation. Entered a temporary restraining order, forcing Donald Trump to take back the media, which he desperately needs for things like the Chinese official dinner and state dinner. Oh, no. He decided to block them all over again. Talk about lighting both ends of a piece of dynamite to see what would happen. So here's what's going to happen. the media led by its law firm Gibson Dunn and Grutcher is going to file a new and has filed a new emergency document that's going to require an immediate hearing the judge day two is not going to be happy that this is the second major violation of his order and I think you're now going to hear from the judge whether he needs another hearing or not I think it's now going to be in order to show cause, why contempt should not be brought against the Trump officials and the White House, including the person who filed their declaration under oath, Micah Stoporich, the director of the White House press operations, I think is going to get dragged before Judge Kelly for a tongue lashing and maybe worse.

5:35Michael Popok:Talk about stupid is as stupid does. If Donald Trump should have seen Judge Kelly's decision as a manna from heaven, saving him from having no coverage whatsoever, because even Fox News joined together with the other news organizations to show solidarity and cut the feed to the White House. Washington Post, owned by corporate media like Amazon, stopped covering the White House. Trump wants to show that he's bigger than they are, that he can crush mainstream media and bend them to his will. I just don't think he can. There's an old adage that came out of the early 1900s. Never pick a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel full.

6:18Michael Popok:That meant don't go up against newspapers, which were the early versions of mainstream media, like the Pulitzer chain or the Hearst chain, because they'll crush you in reporting and in articles. That's the ink part. The modern version of that is don't pick a fight with mainstream media. Don't pick a fight with the Midas Dutch Network or Legal AF because you'll only lose. So we're going to continue to follow what's going to happen, tick-tock, tick-tock, inside of Judge Kelly's courtroom in D.C. And it's not going to be pretty today for the Trump administration. I'm sure I'll be covering another hearing.

6:52Michael Popok:I'm sure I'll be covering another set of filings by the mainstream media. I'm sure the order to show cause is already being drafted by Judge Kelly. And he'll be looking for possible contempt sanctions against the Trump administration. We'll be here for it in its entirety on Legal AF. Now more than ever, we in mainstream, we in independent media need your help. So if you can swing it, just become a free member. You're already here. just freely subscribe and hit that button. Because if you don't think this is the time and the place to protect freedom of the press, then I don't know what other time we're waiting for.

7:36Michael Popok:I really don't. So take a minute, hit that free subscribe button. So until my next report, this is Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack.

8:16Michael Popok:Come over now to free subscribe. Thank you.